Mallikarjun Kharge slams relocation of Gandhi, Ambedkar statues in letter to Speaker, Vice Prez: ‘Violates Democracy'

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Relocate statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, and other national leaders to original locations", Mallikarjun Kharge wrote.Congress leader Kharge alleged that the statues were removed arbitrarily and "without consultation." Kharge further said the act "violates the basic spirit of our democracy."Kharge, in his letter, mentioned that there is a Committee for installing portraits and statues of national leaders and MPs in the Parliament House Complex. "However, the committee lamentably has not been reconstituted since 2019.

Hence, such decisions made without any proper discussion and deliberation with relevant stakeholders are against the rules and traditions of our Parliament," Kharge wrote in his letter. Expressing discontent in the relocation of the statues of Mahatama Gandhi and BR Ambedkar, Kharge further wrote, "Incidentally, during my student days in the mid-1960s, I was at the forefront of demanding installation of the statue in the precincts of the Parliament House.

Such concerted efforts eventually resulted in installing Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue at the place where it was hitherto placed.""I am constrained to state this with anguish that all this has now been brought to a naught in an arbitrary and unilateral manner", the Congress leader added.Several statues, including those of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, and Chhatrapati Shivaji, have been relocated from their original positions within the Parliament premises to a lawn near the old building.